


Smoke on the Water

by sylph_feather



Series: Monsters and Men [4]
Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Monsters, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Explicit Language, F/M, Fantasy, Supernatural Elements, changeling!veronica, demon!JD, it ain't a healthy relationship if you haven't guessed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 13:45:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13976376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylph_feather/pseuds/sylph_feather
Summary: Being with J.D. is beautifully horrid. It’s killing her.





	Smoke on the Water

**Author's Note:**

> ...my titles can only be jokes even when they’re angst  
>  Why must I be like this  
> anyways enjoy this fic even if it ain't as sick as that guitar riff  
> again, the only required reading is the first in the series

At first, J.D.’s presence is highlighted by his scent. He smells of ash, of smoke, of burning. 

It’s strange that Veronica finds it pleasant. 

She briefly wonders if it’s some sort of metaphorical bullshit, the fire to the water and all that, before she lets herself be consumed in his smog once more. 

 

\-- 

 

Slowly, more tangible reminders of his presence begin to take shape on her. 

Frequent contact leaves a tacky dusting of ash between her fingertips. Sometimes, she imagines that the tackiness is not from his trench coat but rather the blood of Heather. It is oddly reassuring to look down and see the gray coating as opposed to a deep red. 

Veronica’s lungs start to feel tight around him. She convinces herself it’s just the smoke, not fear or guilt, and lets him drift around her.  

 

\--

 

She’s starting to cough a bit, raspy and ugly. 

“Maybe you shouldn’t smoke,” Heather Chandler lilts, flicking a finger towards J.D. 

Veronica just flips her off, coughing bout over. She wraps her arms around him and buries her face into his smoky chest. 

 

\--

 

After Ram and Kurt die, J.D. becomes more and more immaterial; being with him is constricting in her chest, and she pretends it’s just the smoke in the air that causes that binding feeling.

\-- 

 

He feels warmer, flickering with embers. 

Her voice is becoming hoarse. 

 

\-- 

 

Veronica knows how demons work. His father was on the brink of losing him, and desperate he made a pact with the gods of old, twisting and bringing back the lost pieces of his soul from whence it had rested, in the smoking remains of the blown up library. 

She also knows how emotions and magic tie together. She can see J.D. losing himself to his anger before her eyes, becoming more demonic each day. 

 

\-- 

 

_ He’s a demon, he did it by nature, and he’s fixing it _ , she reassures herself, but she knows that is a mere stereotype. Demons do not do evil by nature, but rather by choice, and J.D. is and has been fully in control of his actions the whole time. 

Veronica just doesn’t want to face it; she’d rather pretend like it was some sort of possession, taking her love away and puppeteering his voice to croon that more should and will die, and not a once good person who lost himself to his own anger.

She can barely breathe. 

 

\--

 

She watches his ashes drift, releasing the twisted soul and returning to the fire, and hopes more fire does not await him in the afterlife.

Despite the ash in the air, her chest feels free. 

**Author's Note:**

> yell @ me on tumblr @ sylph-bird-63 or just scream at me here. I'd love some prompts for this series, tbh.  
> I really like doing introspective and brief stuff like this (well, this one was SUPER brief, lol) but I might add a more long running and less introspective tale to this story here... possibly a magical road trip. But I dunno


End file.
